Assessment of Insulin Response Following Ingestion of a Carbohydrate/Whey Protein Drink. A Cross-over Randomized Double Blind Study.

Surgery is a stress on the body and recovering well after surgery is very important to patients and their doctors. It is therefore important to prepare patient's bodies for the stress of surgery, and one way to do this is to provide proper nutrition. In the past, patients were asked to prepare for surgery by fasting from midnight before surgery. Today, it is known that this practice is not beneficial to patient's recovery. In fact, it has been recognized that drinking a sugary beverage (e.g., juice) before surgery stimulates the production of insulin, which is a hormone that helps make the proteins needed for wound healing after surgery. This is currently practiced at the MUHC. It might also be beneficial, however, to drink a beverage that contains sugar and whey proteins (a protein isolated from milk) before surgery. In fact, whey proteins stimulate insulin and may also have the added benefit of improving muscular strength. In this study, investigators will measure the level of insulin produced after drinking a carbohydrate (i.e., sugar)-whey protein beverage to determine how it compares to the level of insulin produced after drinking the sugary beverage used at the MUHC.